What should I do with my abandoned side project that still makes around 2-3 sells per week?
I have created a simple planner 3 and 1/2 years ago called Focus Planner (http://focusplanner.co/). It's a printable PDF to set, track and achieve your goals. I wanted to expand this side project into creating web and mobile apps around the idea, but I lost interest in the project and just abandoned it.
I haven't touched the project in almost 3 years and it still generates around 2-3 sells per week. No marketing, no content, no advertising, no activity and no SEO optimization.
I think this project has some potential. Any advice on what can I do to revive it?
Edit: I abandoned the project because I felt like the product wasn't good enough. I was offering just a printable PDF.
Do you actually want to work on it?
If so, you could set aside 1-2 hours every week and just check off a list of experiments how to move the needle.
You could 1st find out where the sales come from (I guess some organic search traffic) - then invest 1-2 weeks improving that channel. Afterwards you can try different channels and just work slowly on it.
One of my side businesses is similar automated, but every time I tried to "force" anything it went nowhere... Like I worked a few days 100% on and and the results have been zero - this just leads to another 3 years doing nothing at all. Therefore I'd suggest a slow track to improvement...
I agree with @patrics - find where those sales are coming from and make efforts to attract more of that type of traffic.
In the short term - charge more. Thanks @patio11
In the long term - build a higher end product for people wanting this end result (Being productive) and wanting more guidence.
I have bought both Marketing for Developers and Jolt by @mijustin ... I think it's time to start implementing some ideas from those books.
Sell it.
Revive? It's a long-tail no-cost product - perfect in this digital economy. Repeat this same plan ad-nauseum and you can expand sales - think weddingplanner, eventplanner, weightlossplanner... Be the #1 destination for print planners online.
Cross-market all your printable PDF's, offer pre-printed and shipped options, subscription plans with a simple phone followup to encourage (coach) from afar. All simple logical upgrades with low cost, low inventory, and low expectations with high value to your customers.
Can you talk to your users? Ask them how they found your product and what features or related products they want to see.
I tried emailing my users a couple of months ago, but I had a low response
Maybe you could change the medium of delivery in order to entice them to give feedback. I.e. put a widget on the download page that they can drop feedback into. Maybe you could offer users that have used the product before a free download if they give you some feedback. Put the offer in the PDF so they see it when they use it (and would be most likely to give feedback)
This is a cool project!
I'm curious about just running a basic ad campaign on Instagram.
Example:
If there's a good return, then set the ads on autopilot (and keep experimenting with different pictures and target groups to increase revenue).
Note: I'm about to try this with Guidable.org. Send me a message if you're interested in my results.
Awesome, thx for the advice!
The product sound similar to another recent thread on IH by @rmartin - https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/show-ih-bluebird-pocket-planner-for-personal-1-week-sprints-5da4ee484a
Hey Sergio,
Great site and I really like the design of the pdf.
Do you know who the people buying are? Demographic/interests etc? That would be handy.
Do you know why they bought?
Re reviving, you could offer the pdf for free in return for a social share? (Limited time). Grow your email list then leverage into an app? I've recently bought an Apple Watch and I'd love to have my big three on my wrist.
If not, and if you're interested to sell, give me a pm.
Hi Sergio, this sounds just like my side project I had going on. It’s a jquery plugin called Infinite Ajax Scroll. I was neglecting it for the past years and sales were dropping each month. Just recently I picked it up again after reading a lot on Indie Hackers, which was very inspiring. Now I’ve been working on it in the evenings and weekend and I must say, it gives me a lot of energy.
If you decide to pick it up again, I’m open to team up and share ideas and feedback (think MasterMind group). Just let me know.
shoot me an email
Just stopped by to say that it's really cool! It's definitely good validation to know that you made a product that sells ~10/mo. It's definitely not nothing! :)
approx 30/mo .. it averages 2/3 sells per week (-tax) ... that's the thing ... I did not touch it in 3 years, I feel it has potential, but not sure what to do with it and how should I try and revive it
Do you want to do anything in the target space? (Planning tools / productivity / etc.)
If so, then think of this as a great lead gen or content marketing that you could give away for free or cheap but get people signed up to your mailing list where you can work on selling your REAL productivity/planning solution.
If not, then sell it to someone who is. It's valuable for the same reason.
I started with the goal of making something in the productivity space. I was thinking of building an app around the core methodology of Focus Planner. The PDF was meant to act as a lead magnet to gather feedback, but the initial response was not what I was looking for. So, I just put a price on it and didn't do anything for over 3 years.
Like the side project idea can I drop you an email love to have a quick chat.
yes. my email is in my profile
This comment was deleted 9 years ago